At the Sotheby’s Hong Kong afternoon sale of fine Chinese ceramics and works of art on October 8, a gilt-bronze figure of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha from the Ming Dynasty was sold for $30 million (HK$236.44 million), with buyer’s premium. The sale set a new world auction record for Chinese sculpture.The 15th-century statue, from the period of Yongle, was won by mainland Chinese collector Zheng Huaxing, a devout Tibetan Buddhist known for his passion for Buddhist sculptures.

The statue bears the inscription “Da ming Yongle nianshi,” or “bestowed in the Yongle era of the great Ming dynasty.” It has been in Italian private collections since the 1960s.The successful bidder is a Chinese collector named Zheng Huaxing, known for his passion for Buddhist sculptures. “I didn’t buy the Buddhist figure for personal reasons. I just want to help return it to its home,” said Zheng, adding that he will find a proper public location for the figure.

The 15th-century statue, from the period of Yongle, was won by mainland Chinese collector Zheng Huaxing, a devout Tibetan Buddhist known for his passion for Buddhist sculptures.“I would have paid any price for this sculpture. I am glad that it can finally be returned to its rightful place in China,” said Zheng, who attended the auction in person.Despite the long-time presence of Buddhas in the auction market, most investors have kept them at arm’s length due to their limited knowledge about the category.Attitudes have changed, however, as the buyers that heated up the Chinese contemporary art market to the point of boiling over are looking for a new segment, according to Bai Manlin, manager of the Buddha department of Beijing Hanhai Auction Company, one of the earliest auction houses in the country to hold Buddha-focused auctions.Buddhas are destined to be an unusual category as they embody a diverse set of value judgments, including historic, religious, cultural and artistic.“The list of aspects specific to Buddhas demands a keen eye from collectors in order to discern the true value of them,” said Bai.“There are basic questions like how to determine the artistic beauty of a Buddha, whether the theme of it is rare, and how to identify whether it’s in the style of Tibetan Buddhas or that of central China,” Bai told the Global Times.Buddhas no longer attract only foreign collectors – who have long viewed Buddhas as representations of Asian culture and have a tradition of collecting them – or domestic professionals. A wider scope of Chinese collectors are now approaching them.

Bronze figure
of a seated Shakyamuni Buddha, Mark and Period of YongleWith
the two record-high Buddha bids (Cai Mingchao in 2006 and Zheng
Huaxing this year), Buddha prices are consistently being pushed to
new heights by Chinese collectors. What’s worthy of noting is that
both of those two Buddhas are Yongle, which according to
professionals is now one of the most valuable varieties.Yongle
Buddhas were crafted in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644). To foster national unity, Emperor Yongle put special
emphasis on connecting with the Tibetan area. Leaders from the latter
regularly paid tributes to the royal court, while gold or bronze
Buddhas were produced by the court to give the Tibetans in return.
“Mainly
produced by the Nepalese craftsmen and artists then, gilded Yongle
Buddhas are some of the best in the market now, since their
craftsmanship is so exquisite that even the techniques in the later
prosperous Kangqian period (under emperors Kangxi and Qianlong)
during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) couldn’t possibly reach their
standard, let alone modern copying techniques,” said Dong Guoqiang,
president of the Beijing Council Auction Company.There
are other concerns which can help evaluate a Buddha’s worth.“Generally
those produced by imperial courts are more precious than those not
since they represent the temperament of royal power,” Bai
explained.Size
and style matter, too. “Buddhas which people can clearly discern
and say which kind of Buddha it is have more cultural value,” Bai
said.Speaking
to Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, before the
sale, he described an auction market becalmed and more transparent.
After the headline-hitting crazy prices of 2010-11, where the likes
of the Qing dynasty “Ruislip vase” sold for £43m, he told of a
return to pre-2010 prices and, in the aftermath of the tightening of
credit in China, to a collector’s market after the collapse of
several art funds. He saw it as a healthy sign that buyers at the top
end were spread between Hong Kong, Taiwan, greater China and the
west. Non-payment was no longer a serious problem, he claimed.Most
of the country’s new money will continue to come to traditional
collecting categories, he believes.“A
lot of wealth is in the hands of people who are not necessarily
educated but who are interested in their own roots and buying back
their cultural history,” he says, pointing out that Chinese TV now
airs day-long cultural programmes. Buyers relish the opportunity to
buy imperial pieces and “rub shoulders with the emperors”.Now
everything is returning, including the classical Chinese furniture so
admired by American collectors – and there is hardly anyone left in
the west prepared to match these new prices.